Early part of the year has been progressing well

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Mr Juha Niemelä, President and CEO of UPM-Kymmene Corporation at the Annual General Meeting: In the beginning of the year the demand for forest industry products has been good. Therefore, the capacity utilization in UPM-Kymmene's mills has remained in a high level. The order book is also good at the moment. UPM-Kymmene's paper production during January-February was 1,167,000 tonnes and the production of wood products was 469,000 cubic metres. Compared with the same period last year, the production of paper rose 13% and the production of wood products 22%. Turnover for the period of January-February was 1,414 million euro, 16% up on last year's figure. Excluding capital gains, operating profit grew from 126 million euro in 1999 to 215 million euro. Correspondently, the operating profit rose from 9.0% to 15.2%.